Mundelein Election A Growing Concern

Traffic, taxes and growth dominate Mundelein election rhetoric as four trustee candidates compete for three four-year terms and two more square off for a two-year seat.

Three incumbent trustees running under the banner of the Mundelein Citizens Party also stress the need to redevelop the downtown area. A long-vacant Jewel-Osco shopping center on Hawley Street downtown acts like an unwelcome beacon, say Gerald Caslavka, James Keeney and Patrick Wilson, the party`s four-year candidates.

Independent candidate Dick Starkey, a former trustee, also is running for a four-year term.

Running to fill an unexpired term are Citizens Party member Raymond Semple and independent Jim Nutschnig. Independent candidate Pat McGrath is still on the ballot but is no longer seeking election, citing ``personal reasons`` and declining to elaborate.

Wilson is pushing for better planning for traffic problems if and when Illinois Highway 53 is extended north into Lake County. ``You`ve got to plan for it,`` he said.

Property taxes also command much of the 16-year board veteran`s interest, even though village government`s share of the total tax bill is only about 11 percent. ``My responsibility is to control that 11 percent and assure fiscal responsibility for that part of the resident`s bill,`` Wilson said.

Keeney, appointed to a board vacancy in 1989, heads the board`s Finance Committee. He is recommending a cooperative effort with businesses to build a proposed Metra commuter station in the downtown area.

Caslavka raised the specter of uncontrolled suburban sprawl. ``We`re going to be very careful as we expand north and west,`` he said.

Starkey, a former two-term trustee, agrees that village growth is a primary voter concern. ``I would like to see it done properly,`` he said.

Semple, Citizens Party candidate for the two-year slot said, ``The downtown merchants are more or less forgotten.``

Independent Nutschnig urges an even more gradual approach to village growth. ``We`ve got to slow down our ambitious way of doing things . . . a lot of our growth has been very brisk,`` Nutschnig said.

Like its two larger neighbors, Libertyville and Vernon Hills, Mundelein has experienced significant growth in recent years. Since 1970 the village has added 7,000 residents, and now it has 21,215.